For the past 100 years, the Red Cross has been helping millions of kids, teens and adults learn how to swim and become lifeguards and instructor, so the water can be a safe place for everyone. The American Red Cross created the first national water safety program in the US- and today it’s still the gold standard for aquatics training. Even Duke Kahanamoku even learned water safety from the Red Cross!

To mark our century of swimming safety education, the Red Cross is planning to teach 50,000 more people in 50 selected cities how to swim in a multi-year campaign, and is urging people across the country to make sure that they and their families can swim. The selected cities (which includes Honolulu) were chosen due to their high number of fatal drownings or overall drowning rates- some higher than the national average.

Making a positive impact by connecting with communities to cut those rates by helping kids, teens and adults be safe in the water is why the Centennial Campaign is so important. This campaign comes at a time when a National Red Cross survey showed that most people believe that they are better swimmers than they actually are. It was found that more than half of all Americans (54 percent) either can’t swim or don’t have all of the basic swimming skills.

In partnership with the Red Cross, Honolulu City and County swim lessons help people develop skills and water safety behaviors that help them be more comfortable and safe when they are in, on and around the water.

The Red Cross Hawai`i and DPR have been engaged in a partnership for three years where RCH waive their fees for conducting certification and water safety classes in exchange for use of our pools and facilities. The classes are a fantastic way for participants to learn swimming strokes, water safety and become adjusted with the water resources.

Additionally, the DPR is also looking for more part-time lifeguards to help keep our pools safe. The job is great! It pays $13.56 an hour, has flexible hours, and is conducted outdoors in our pool locations and ocean recreation programs across the island. It is a great gateway into other first responder jobs.

Those interested can call the pool managers at the respective pools to see if there are openings. List of the pools and their contact information is on their website at parks.honolulu.gov.